TURKOMANS BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: THE ... - Bilkent University

women. 870 Qādi Ahmed Qumī gives further details about this meeting: while staying at
the camp of the Ustaclu tribe, the leaders of this tribe came to the court of Ismail and
paid their homage. Their families and possessions were also with them at the camp. The
conversation between the tribal leaders and the Shah ended with the decision that their
families would not come with the army, for the security of the women, children, elders,
and possessions would create additional problems during the combat and would be sent
to the Ottoman territories in Anatolia. A request to the Ottoman authorities made for the
transhumance of the Ustaclu women, elders, and children. 871 Upon receiving approval
they inhabited in the region Sivas-Tokat-Amasya. 872
This exemplary case, of Ustaclu tribe, must be valid similarly for the other tribes
of Anatolia as well. The fighter human sources of these Turkoman nomadic tribes joined
Ismail’s army while the rest of the tribes - i.e women, elders, children, animals, and
other properties – were left behind in the Ottoman territories. The former group
constituted a tribal military aristocracy in the Safavid state after 1501. The military
aristocracy of each tribe, under their own tribal leader, were running Safavid provinces
(ulkā) bestowed upon them as prebend called “tiyul”. 873 Thus the connection and
870
HS, p. 571; HR, pp. 44-5; Sarwar, p. 34; Savory, “The Consolidation of Safawid Power in Persia”, pp.
85-6.
871
Aubin, “L’avènement des Safavides”, pp. 9-10, 29. HT says Ismail wrote a letter to Bayezid II for this.
See HT, pp. 175-6. Sümer cites the same account from Gaffārī’s Tārih-i cihān-ārā and Oktay Efendiev
from Eli Zeynelabidin’s Tekmilatü’l-Ahbar. See Sümer, Safevî Devletinin Kuruluşu, p. 18; Oktay
Efendiyev, “Sultan II. Bayezid ve Şah Đsmail”, XIII. Türk Tarih Kongresi Bildirileri, Ankara: TTK, 2002,
p. 90.
872
Sümer, Safevî Devletinin Kuruluşu, p. 54.
873
See Aubin, “L’avènement des Safavides”, pp. 29-31. As Roger Savory rightly points out, qizilbash
amirs were governing provinces with a certain degree of autonomy, having their own provincial vizier,
sadr, wakil, and other officials. Savory underscores that the provincial administration of the Safavid state
was almost exclusively – the only exception was Qādi Muhammad Kāshānī who was appointed sadr in
909 / 1503-4 and later promoted to the governorship of Yazd, where he was put to death in 915 / 1509-10
because of his abuse of the extraordinary power in his hands – run by qizilbash amirs. Savory puts it as
follows: “The government of the provinces of the Safawid empire during the early period was allotted to
qizilbash amirs, who ruled as pretty princes in their provinces. These assignments were known by the
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